I think the internet should, itself, be classified as a public utility. But that doesn't mean it should be nationalized since, as we all know, private companies can own public utilities (electric companies, water utilities, trash disposal, they are often owned by private companies). There are just more rules involved to defend the "public" from private abuse.

This would be especially useful in the case of telcom companies as a way to strengthen net neutrality rules.

It wasn't that long ago where Microsoft was the monopoly that was going to take over the world, and people were worried about Borders and Barnes and Noble killing all the little bookstores while Blockbuster was eliminating the mom and pop video stores. Now, two of those companies are gone and Microsoft isn't the dominate player it was. Today it's a Google/Amazon world. Tomorrow it will be somebody else.

However, broadband should be regulated like other public utilities. They are all the keys to our economy.

I_Am_Weasel:This is the first I've heard of this and I've been at the meetings.

The thing is that at the meetings only stuff on the docket gets discussed.

You need to go to the meeting at Applebee's AFTER the meetings where they discuss what's going to be on the docket for next week. That's when they put together the list and decide how it's going to play out.

They've got a deal where they'll honor the $.50 wings and $1 drafts deal they do on Tuesday night.

Skarekrough:I_Am_Weasel: This is the first I've heard of this and I've been at the meetings.

The thing is that at the meetings only stuff on the docket gets discussed.

You need to go to the meeting at Applebee's AFTER the meetings where they discuss what's going to be on the docket for next week. That's when they put together the list and decide how it's going to play out.

They've got a deal where they'll honor the $.50 wings and $1 drafts deal they do on Tuesday night.

Which Applebees? The one near the highway or the one just off 2nd Street?

Ok I'll go along with this much. American DOD spending built most of the internet's underlying technologies. Licensing fees should be paid.

Also then we would have to let go of controlling other countries' DNS. Which is fine because we don't need it. We're just trading away our own investment in return for getting to play with the rest of the world's internets. We've paid to design the biggest information thing ever. Why are we not making money on this?

It wasn't that long ago where Microsoft was the monopoly that was going to take over the world, and people were worried about Borders and Barnes and Noble killing all the little bookstores while Blockbuster was eliminating the mom and pop video stores. Now, two of those companies are gone and Microsoft isn't the dominate player it was. Today it's a Google/Amazon world. Tomorrow it will be somebody else.

However, broadband should be regulated like other public utilities. They are all the keys to our economy.

well... Microsoft still wholly dominates the PC market, Barnes & Noble and Borders actually DID kill off little bookstores and Blockbuster really did eliminate all the mom and pop video stores long before the end of widespread use of DVDs.

Conservative logic: No, I don't actually understand how facts, rhetoric, or words work, but I don't need to because Obummer is the WORST President in the USA history and global warming is a hox and Obamacare is socialism and fascism taking over this country like Rush and Reagan warned us it would back in 1984 and why do you keep asking me if this is a runon sentence.

Let them. Only liberal welfare queens siphoning away at the government teet use the Facebook anyway. Conservative Americans are too busy working to make sure there is food on the shelves so you namby pamby art school dropouts can dash through the aisles on your Rascals, zip past the real food, and buy your Little Debbies and Chocotacos with your EBT cards.

Honestly, all they did was kill the bookstores that wouldn't have survived the market anyways (think big box stores and Amazon). I know it is different in small towns, but there are still a ton of bookstores in metro areas. They just learned that they had to change their target audience and specialize.

It wasn't that long ago where Microsoft was the monopoly that was going to take over the world, and people were worried about Borders and Barnes and Noble killing all the little bookstores while Blockbuster was eliminating the mom and pop video stores. Now, two of those companies are gone and Microsoft isn't the dominate player it was. Today it's a Google/Amazon world. Tomorrow it will be somebody else.

However, broadband should be regulated like other public utilities. They are all the keys to our economy.

Ambivalence:I think the internet should, itself, be classified as a public utility. But that doesn't mean it should be nationalized since, as we all know, private companies can own public utilities (electric companies, water utilities, trash disposal, they are often owned by private companies). There are just more rules involved to defend the "public" from private abuse.

This would be especially useful in the case of telcom companies as a way to strengthen net neutrality rules.

But that's just me. I do not speak for anyone but myself.

I was going to say: The author is an idiot, but the idea of telecoms as public utilities has done wonders for my hometown. For $35/month, you get 20/20 fiberoptic to the house. And everything - tech support, call center, etc - is local. If I have a problem, I call a local number, talk to people I see at the ballpark on a regular basis, and they almost always send someone out in less than 24 hours.

But the telecoms got scared shiatless, and like in several other states they bribed the NC General Assembly into making it virtually impossible for other cities in North Carolina to do the same. Two dozen cities were watching how Greenlight take off, and started exploring their own municipal bond projects. The General Assembly even had the audacity to call it the "Level Playing Field Act".

No no, this makes perfect sense. It's all part of Chairman Obamao's Great Socialist Plot, because if regulating something like a public utility is tantamount to nationalizing all businesses that use that public utility, then all businesses are, in fact, nationalized. Just as Alinsky intended.